WASHINGTON–President Barack Obama on Thursday named the current controller of the White House budget office, Daniel Werfel, acting commissioner of the IRS.

The appointment is effective Wednesday, May 22. Mr. Werfel will replace Steven Miller, who resigned under pressure as acting commissioner on Wednesday in the midst of a controversy over IRS targeting of tea-party and other conservative groups.

“As acting commissioner, Mr. Werfel will lead efforts to ensure the IRS implements new safeguards to restore public trust and administers the tax code with fairness and integrity,” the White House said in an announcement.

Mr. Werfel has agreed to serve for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

The appointment gives the White House the ability to make a fresh start by placing an outsider at the top of the insular IRS, which is facing a series of investigations from Capitol Hill, its own watchdog organization and the Justice Department. At the same time, the move puts a longtime loyalist at the top of the sprawling agency, and possibly a measure of control over its responses. He is also a familiar face on Capitol Hill.

“Danny has a strong record of raising his hand for — and excelling at — tough management assignments,” Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said in a statement.

Mr. Werfel worked in various roles in the Office of Management and Budget in the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. He has played a central role in the administration’s work to deal with the across-the-board budget cuts known as the sequester.

As controller, Mr. Werfel was a central figure in guiding federal agencies, Congress and the White House on how to reduce spending in line with the sequester, the $85 billion in spending cuts that kicked on earlier this year.

Mr. Werfel is known in the White House as “Danny” and graduated from Cornell University, earned a master’s degree in public policy from Duke University and a law degree from the University of North Carolina. His first 12 years in the federal government were split between jobs at OMB and two years as a trial attorney in the civil-rights division at the Justice Department.

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